'I'm not trying to describe a place. I’m trying to work out how it sits — how colour, weight and space hold together.'
Alex Ayliffe is a contemporary British abstract painter working predominantly in oil and pastel. Her work is grounded in landscape, not as depiction, but as a framework for exploring colour, structure and spatial tension.
Observation is an important starting point, but the paintings develop through process, memory and instinct rather than direct translation.
Since relocating to Woodbridge, Suffolk, in 2020, the East Anglian landscape has become a consistent point of reference. Its rivers, coastlines and wide horizons inform both palette and composition, particularly the use of restrained colour and subtle contrast. Ayliffe's paintings are carefully constructed but remain open, allowing shifts in surface, edge and tone to hold the work in balance.
Her background as a professional illustrator underpins a strong sense of composition and colour control, though her fine art practice is resolutely non-narrative. The emphasis is on how a painting is built - how colour occupies space, how marks accumulate, and how a surface resolves - rather than on image or story. The resulting works are quietly charged, inviting sustained attention rather than immediate reading.
Ayliffe exhibits regularly in London, including at the Mall Galleries with the Pastel Society, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, the Society of Women Artists and the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition. She has received several awards from the Pastel Society and her work is held in private and public collections.